Hello, I’ve been clearing out my junk and after throwing away empty CD case number 1000, and making many trips to the Goodwill drop off point (did you know they take e-waste? And a hard drive with holes drilled through the platters counts as e-waste?). After I dropped off 54 X-Large cotton T-shirts, I was wondering what worker’s opinions at Goodwill, or the Salvation Army, or whatever charitable place you know about, were about, well, stuff?
Like, as someone who experiences a constant river of “stuff” come through the door and go back out, has it changed your opinion on collecting anything? Do you have less stuff than the average person? Do you have more stuff than the average person? Do you constantly look for stuff to sell on e-bay? Are you sick of looking at stuff?
What effect does working at a Goodwill change your attitude about having things?
I’m imagining a person who works at Goodwill goes home to a place with no clutter as there is too much at work??? I have no idea.
MilliCal has been working at the local Salvation Army thrift store for a year. As far as I can tell, it hasn’t changed her overall attitude about “stuff”. Her stories about the people, however, are interesting.
The only experience I’ve had was Goodwill and it wasn’t in the store side of the operation. One thing I can say about them is that unless you come in as a client first don’t expect a lot of consideration as an employee. A close friend (who was a friend long before I worked there and long after) had his knees go out on him to the point that he qualified for a handicapped license plate. His office was on the second floor, only steps to get there, and there were empty spaces on the first floor. But rather than move his office down a floor they decided to cut him loose. So an organization that basically helps the handicapped fired someone for becoming handicapped. I never quite figured that one out and I left myself shortly after so I can’t say if its the norm or an excuse they used to get rid of someone they didn’t like. But it still strikes me as odd.
My grandma works at a thrift store. She’s not a hoarder but she does like her tchotchkes. And cheap stuff. Her reaction has been “I can’t believe people get rid of all this nice stuff!” Lucky for all of us she doesn’t bring much home. She did like to get grandpa’s shoes from there and the poor guy had foot fungus for like the last 5 years of his life
I have volunteered at a Habitat ReStore, which sells building materials (and that covers a wider range than most people would think). The one thing I remember more than anything else is that truism of garage and other secondhand sales: people will buy (or not buy) THE.WEIRDEST.STUFF.
I work at a Salvation Army Family Store.
We sell things to give back to our community.
Being a tourist town, what I hate most is the thinking we are your dump.
Can’t sell your stuff in your yard-sale?
Yeppers, dump it off at our place where we have to pay $55 a load to get rid of it.
I worked at the main Salvation Army store in Oakland many years ago. I was a paid employee, but about half of the people working there were guys who were given a choice by a judge: you can go to jail, or you can do a stint at the S.A. I guess these were like minor drug offenders or whatever.
So the guys would go there, and work in the furniture shop or the warehouse or whatever. Most of them were nice guys, and when you’re working all day long sorting and hanging donated clothes next to somebody, you chat. They told me that they worked all day for free, and had to listen to an hour-long sermon before meals. Also, they told me that people would donate really nice cars to the S.A., and the local guy-in-charge or his wife would take the best cars for themselves.
Eventually, the management told me that paid employees were not allowed to speak at all to the other guys.
For the paid employees, there was this rule also that any item that we might want, we had to let it go to the sales floor for three days before we could buy it.
I understand the reason for both of those rules; all the same, the place became a real drag, and I don’t think I lasted more than six months.
This is the primary fallacy of Goodwill. It’s NOT to help the handicapped, poor, etc. Goodwill is a for-profit corporation that happens to get it’s merchandise for free and treats it’s low wage employees below par to even Walmart. People have been fired for “stealing” a $2 pair of pants that they tried out and exchanged incorrectly.
I know people involved with the Salvation Army and respect them. SA tries to be a low budget, nonprofit enterprise and they have strict rules to stay on-mission and deal consistently with people who have very little plus sometimes criminal records and mental issues.
I worked at thrift store when I was in college and the best part was getting first dibs on collectible or cool items. The worst part was some of the scary people that came in. I mean people who were clearly on some sort of drugs and had no problem stealing stuff. The store I worked at was robbed at gunpoint, luckily on one of my days off.
Several years ago, a co-worker who is a breast cancer survivor participated in the 3-day Walk which required her to raise at least IIRC $2,000, and she had a garage sale as one of her fundraisers. A bunch of us from work contributed items and helped her with the sale.
One woman we worked with brought about 10 large garbage bags full of stuff from her parents’ attic. 95% of it was literally garbage, mostly consisting of 1980s clothes that were full of holes and splattered with paint. :mad: My co-worker’s husband had to pay to get those disposed of, too. This was not someone we would have expected to do something like that, either.
On a better note, she did make quite a bit of money from the sale. The biggest hit item was her “Boob Cookies” (as a Caucasian, she made hers all in vanilla but they can be chocolate too :p) and women snapped them up at 75 cents each. Men, however, were, like, "Ummm, not going there. She made hers from sliced cookie dough, frosting, and Hershey’s Kisses.
While the Salvation Army is a Christian denomination that has opinions about gay clients that many of us do not agree with, I have never heard anyone who was helped by them, especially after a disaster, say anything negative about them.
As for Goodwill, they actually have their own line of cleaning and other household products, which probably don’t work all that well, and charge almost as much for their items (toys, clothing, household items, etc.) as you’d pay at a lower-end retail store like Dollar General.
Independent thrift stores generally have the best stuff. One of my favorites is a local one that supports a pro-life organization. I go there because I figure that if one woman does not leave her baby in a trash can because of that organization, it’s all worth it.
p.s. Were the people who had a choice between jail or Salvation Army doing court-ordered community service? We had a lot of community service people at the ReStore, and a surprising number stayed on even after they completed their hours - the young men in particular.
This is the degree of good will that I’ve read of several times…
*"But according to advocates for the disabled and current and former Goodwill employees, the review process involves a speed test, in which an employer uses a stopwatch to determine how many clothing items an employee can hang on the rack in a minute.
Employees are allowed only two mistakes. Any more and the quality of work is automatically deemed to be poor."*
Men, however, were, like, "Ummm, not going there. She made hers from sliced cookie dough, frosting, and Hershey’s Kisses.